490 LONG-LEGGED AVOSET. 
The Red breasted Snipe is ten inches and a half long, and 
eighteen inches in extent; the bill is about two inches and a quarter 
in length, straight, grooved, black towards the point, and of a dirty 
eel-skin color at the base, where it is tumid and wrinkled; lores, 
dusky ; cheeks and eyebrows, pale yellowish white, mottled with specks 
of black; throat and breast, a reddish buff color; sides, white, barred 
with black ; belly and vent, white, the latter barred with dusky ; crown, 
neck above, back, scapulars, and tertials, black, edged, mottled, and 
marbled with yellowish white, pale and bright ferruginous, much in 
the same manner as the Common Snipe; wings, plain olive, the 
secondaries, centred and bordered with white ; shaft of the first quill, 
very white; rump, tail-coverts, and tail, eae consists of twelve 
feathers,) white, thickly spotted witl Mack ; legs and feet, dull yellowish 
green ; outer toe united to the midd_e one by a small membrane; eye, 
very dark. The female, which is paler on the back, and less ruddy on 
the breast, has been described by Mr. Pennant as a separate species.* 
These birds, doubtless, breed not far to the northward of the United 
States, if we may judge from the lateness of the season when they 
leave us in spring, the largeness of the eggs in the ovaries of the 
females before they depart, and the short period of time they are 
absent. Of all our sea-side Snipes, it is the most numerous, and the 
most delicious for the table. From these circumstances, and the 
crowded manner in which it flies and settles, it is the most eagerly 
sought after by our gunners, who send them to market in great num- 
bers. 
. 
LONG-LEGGED AVOSET.—RECURVIROSTRA HIMANTO- 
PUS.—Fie. 229. 
Long-legged Plover, Arct. Zool. p. 487, No. 405.— Turton, p. 416. — Bewick, ii. 
21.— L’Echasse, Buff. viii. 114, Pl. enl. 878. — Peale’s Museum, No. 4210. 
HIMANTOPUS NIGRICOLLIS, — Vieitwor. ¢ 
Himantopus Mexicanus, Ord’s Edit. of Wils. — Himantopus nigricollis, Bonap. 
Synop. p. 322. 
Naturauists have most unaccountably classed this bird with the 
genus Charadrius, or Plover, and yet affect to make the particular con- 
formation of the bill, legs, and feet, the rule of their arrangement. In 
the present subject, however, excepting the trivial circumstance of the 
want of a hind toe, there is no resemblance whatever of those parts to 
~ See his Brown Snipe, Arct. Zool. No. 369. 
+ Wilson confounded this species with the Long-legged Plover of Europe, and 
ranged it with the Avosets. Mr. Ord, in his reprint, placed it in the genus Himan- 
topus, properly established for these birds, but under the name Mesicanus. The 
Prince of Musignano is of opinion, that it cannot range under this, being much 
smaller, and refers it to the H. nigricollis of Vicillot. The genus contains only a 
few species, all so closely allied, that near examination is necessary to distinguish 
them. They are all remarkable for the great disproportion of their legs. — Ep. 
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